Bentonville School District Weighs Transfers In, Out

BENTONVILLE -- Student transfers -- inside, outside and within the School District -- is an issue that has demanded attention recently from district officials.

In July, the School Board unanimously denied requests from families living outside the district to transfer 15 students into Bentonville schools. The denial was based on district policy that transfers in not be allowed if school or grade-level enrollment is at least 80 percent of capacity.

At A Glance

School Board Elections

Arkansas’ annual school board elections will be Sept. 16. Early voting begins Sept. 9. There are races for two seats on the Bentonville School Board. Lisa Clark and Travis Riggs are running for the Zone 5 seat. Willie Cowgur and Kirsten Johnston are running in Zone 4. Only registered voters living in those zones are eligible to vote in the respective races.

Source: Staff Report

Meeting Information

Bentonville School Board

The Bentonville School Board’s next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the School District’s Administration Building at 500 Tiger Blvd.

Two of those families, representing a total of five students, appealed to the state Board of Education. The state board overturned the Bentonville board's decision for both families during a meeting Aug. 21.

In one case, a family recently had moved from the Bentonville district to Springdale and wanted their daughter, an 11th-grader, to continue in Bentonville.

The other case involved a Decatur family that wanted its four children enrolled in Bentonville. The parents said they were unhappy with the education their children were receiving in Decatur schools, according to a letter submitted to the Department of Education. The parents also wrote they both work in Bentonville and having the children there would be more convenient for them.

The state board voted 4-0 in favor of the Springdale family's request and 3-1 for the Decatur family's request.

Michael Poore, Bentonville superintendent, said the state board's decisions were "hard to stomach." The district is growing so quickly, it already has challenges serving those students who live in the district, he said.

"It's interesting," Poore said. "We've always been told if a district has a policy to handle capacity and to handle requests for transfers in, that would be upheld. In this case it wasn't."

District enrollment was 15,608 as of Thursday, about 400 students more than the district had at the same time last year. The district has had to move students to schools outside their attendance zones and install portable classrooms at the high school in order to accommodate growth, Poore said.

Diane Zook, a state board member, was one of those who voted for both transfer appeals.

"They had set the 80 percent capacity (policy), but in my view did not present a clear case of exactly how they had come to the 80 percent," Zook said. "The district didn't present any clear evidence they would have to add any staff. I believed the best thing for me to do was to vote to let the families have a choice."

Zook said she didn't believe the state board's decision set a precedent that would allow anyone seeking transfer into the district to come in.

"I'm pretty comfortable that all of us will look at each case with information regarding that child and that district and not generalize from one to another," she said.

The Bentonville School Board also has dealt with a few requests within the past two months from families to transfer students out of the district.

The board on July 29 considered three requests for transfers out of the district. One family asked to transfer two children to the Gravette School District. The other two requests were for transfers to Pea Ridge.

None of the requests had been made on time under the state's School Choice Act. The board's 3-3 vote on the transfer requests equated a rejection. The board's denial had to do in part with concerns about the district's policy on the matter and how closely the district was following the proper procedure.

When the requests were brought back to the board at its next meeting, after they'd gone through the proper administrative channel, the board approved them by a 6-1 vote. Rebecca Powers was the only board member who voted against them.

Administrators plan to revise the transfer policy in the next few months and present it to the board for approval.

Meanwhile, some families would like administrators to be more flexible on allowing students transfers among schools within the district.

Krista Dalton, the mother of two students, addressed the board at its Aug. 18 meeting. Her daughters are gymnasts. When she and her husband bought their house, they paid close attention to the junior high school zones. They bought a house zoned for Lincoln Junior High because it would be convenient for their girls to get to after-school practice at their gymnastics academy, located less than a mile from Lincoln.

A recent rezoning of schools forced their children to go to Washington Junior High, about three miles from the gymnastics academy.

"There are eight competitive families that attend Lincoln that Annee can carpool with to ensure she gets to competitive practice on time," Dalton said. "At Washington I have no one who can help."

Dalton said she works in Springdale, so picking up her daughter in the middle of the day to drive her to practice is inconvenient for her.

"I had no idea when we bought our home we would be rezoned into a different school," Dalton said. "I am simply asking you to do for us what you are willing to do for the other families that wanted to leave the district. Can you show honor to those of us that chose Bentonville Public Schools?"

The board did not take any action on Dalton's request.

Wendi Cheatham, board president, said she understood the parent's dilemma and her frustration. She said she's open to making it happen, but would need the administration to craft a policy so all such requests are handled fairly.

"I just want whatever we do to be clearly communicated and consistently applied in every situation," Cheatham said. "So with the transfers out, we can be consistent with that. The transfers within, I think, that's harder. I just have to have someone figure out a way they can make it work, make it consistent and make it fair."

NW News on 09/01/2014

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